According to veteran news anchor Dan Rather, there will be “no pivot,” when it comes to Donald Trump because there “never was going to be” in the first place. “There will be no becoming presidential. There never was going to be,” Rather said in a recent Facebook post, which has garnered almost 200,000 likes and shares as of this writing.
This Tuesday during a press conference at Trump Tower in Manhattan, Trump abandoned his previous (although forced) disavowal of the white supremacist groups that support him and doubled down on his previous rhetoric that claimed “both sides” were equally responsible for the clashes between white supremacist groups and counter-protesters, which left a woman dead and others injured in Charlottesville, Virginia this weekend. Although these sorts of Trumpisms are to be expected, many agree that it crossed a crucial line: the current Republican President of the United States is now openly providing cover for the nation’s oldest and most dangerous fascist group.
Rather, who’s been a vocal critic of Trump on social media, called the Q&A at Trump Tower “one of the most surreal and depressing presidential press conferences ever.”
“Mr. Trump said what most people dreaded but already knew,” he wrote. “His blatant false equivalence between Nazis and those who oppose them that he said on Saturday, that’s how he really feels — times a thousand.”
Rather pointed out that with any other president, Trump’s comments would be unconscionable.
“It is clear that he doesn’t consider himself to be the President of the United States of America — no matter what his official job title says. Down where he lives he is the president of his base, which includes a lot of bigots and even Nazis and members of the Klan.”
He pointed out that not all of Trump’s supporters fall into this category, but the racist demographic makes up a “large majority of his base.”
“The question is whether those who defend the President, or seeks to normalize him or change the subject, will be seen as worse than enablers,” Rather concluded. “Will they be viewed by history as sympathizers to the worst instincts of American hatred?”
You can read his full post on Facebook here.
Featured image via Flickr
